Cuomo: Fracking no cure-all for Upstate

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a radio interview Monday morning that the controversial natural gas drilling technique known as hydrofracking isn’t the sole solution to the fiscal woes affecting Upstate America.

“It’s misleading for you to suggest … that hydrofracking in and of itself would be the answer for the Upstate economy,” Cuomo said to WCNY’s Susan Arbetter on “The Capitol Pressroom.” By “you,” Cuomo meant not Arbetter but fracking advocates who have been waiting some five years for the state to complete the massive environmental impact statement that could guide the process if the state moves ahead with allowing it.

The DEC’s work is currently waiting on a state Health Department review of DEC’s chapter on the potential health impacts of fracking. DOH’s work was supposed to be completed months ago but is still in process.

“We don’t have an update, at this time, from the Department of Health,” Cuomo said. “We’re still waiting for it.”

Cuomo said he didn’t thinking it was “incongruous” to withhold action on fracking while also devoting so much energy and attention to the upstate economy — including the administration’s recent work on casino expansion, the START-UP NY plan and almost weekly high-profile tourism initiatives built around rafting, fishing, racing and — coming tomorrow — wine.

“It’s a limited geographic region,” he said of the parts of the Southern Tier where development would be likely.

“If we approved hydrofracking today, that is not, in and of itself, going to change the trajectory of the upstate economy. We still need to do reducing taxes, tourism, more manufacturing, building off the SUNY centers upstate — you still have to do all of the above, and that’s what we’re doing,” he said.

The new Siena poll finds statewide support for DEC approval of fracking rising 4 percent since June, from 37 percent to 41 percent — a point less than the historic high of 42 percent support in late 2012; opposition fell by 2 percent, from 44 percent to 42 percent. While the state is still split on the subject, the number of people with “not enough information/Don’t know/No opinion” fell to an historic low of 12 percent — almost half the number from last fall.

These numbers did not stop Alex Beauchamp of Food & Water Watch from releasing a statement saying the poll showed that New Yorkers are standing strong against fracking.

“As more and more science reveals how real and disastrous the dangers of fracking are for towns and states, New Yorkers are standing strong in their opposition against bringing it here to ruin our state,” he said. “New Yorkers don’t want our water, land, food and air to be poisoned by gas companies which have a history of misleading the public, draining the value out of towns in a predatory scheme, and leaving residents to foot the bill for the costs of damage.”